PALERMO
MANIFESTA 12

The Duskmann collective’s project will amaze Palermo on the occasion of Manifesta12, giving the city a chance to rediscover a forgotten place and creating an installation enabling the interaction between visitors and art.

Duskmann is an art collective. A permanent creative research project constantly cooperating with different artistic players.

DUSKMANN’s objective is to collect a wide variety of forms of expression within a single universe, emphasizing each one’s unique characteristics.

The common denominator is a well-defined stylistic entity, easily recognizable as minimal post-atomic, devoted to formal care.

Each element is in perfect harmony within this multidisciplinary structure: it is an organism that finds its balance in the contrast between opposites, a twilight soul poised between the contradictions of its time.

Prelude

Prelude was created from an experiential process where the artists of the collective, fascinated with Italy’s and the world’s monumental heritage, began photographing its architectures focusing on materials — particularly marble — and discovering figures and graphic elements built in the grain of the rock.
The central element of the installation is an imposing block of red jasper resembling a beating human heart. The gem projects its energy on the surrounding walls, which host, as fragments of this power, 82 photographs framed according to a precise mathematical analysis. The concept of contrast between opposites, which is the cornerstone in the collective’s thinking, is emphasized by the arrangement of the photographs on the walls: 41 in white and 41 in black. Above each photograph, an alternation of smoked and clear glass composes a modular pattern designed to create continuity between one picture and the next. Three glass patterns are interchangeable, so that the first can be the continuation of the third or vice-versa, in a potentially endless combinability.
The concept of convergence and antithesis is thus perfectly developed between the geometric world and the chaos expressed by the natural abstractions shown in the photographs.
The viewer is given freedom to interpret the images and will find himself recognizing in the designs of the artworks shapes suggested by his own subconscious.
Lastly, the concept of combinability is further developed by fitting the pictures with multiple junction points, allowing for a variety of installation options and perspectives. The backside of each artwork is adorned by an octagon of real jasper, which is metaphorically linked to the central rock.

PRELUDE ROME 2015

Prelude Manifesta

For the manifesta12 biennial, with the patronage of the city of palermo and palermo capital of culture, duskmann brings the installation prelude back to sicily and to the places which generated its entire creative process.
after several decades of closure, the collective reopens the extraordinary church of the madonna della mazza.
at the entrance a large black panel blocks the way, preventing access to the church: three octagonal openings set at different heights provide the opportunity to look inside. within, the interior of the church, which is open to the public only in the evening, is dark.
by inserting a coin in a slot, visitors can illuminate the entire installation for a few seconds, bathing it in a blaze of light which – as the plaque reading “una vampa che t’adduma rintra” states – surprises the viewer like a flame which ignites the soul.

PRELUDE VILNIUS

K29
Vilnius
12 February — 29 February 2016

Thanks to the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture, the City of Vilnius and the Italian consulate in Lithuania, Prelude will be shown at K29, this time with an unexpected setup. The works of art will be placed on white panels on which a black stripe has been painted giving continuity, like an orbit around the central jasper, which is the source of the energy propulsion. The DUSKMANN octagonal portal will be displayed on a completely black panel on the back wall of the evocative room, creating contrast.

PRELUDE ROME 2015

Giacomo Guidi Gallery
Rome
10 June — 30 August 2015

In 2015 DUSKMANN arrives at the Giacomo Guidi Gallery, Rome to present a unique Prelude installation. The rock, the absolute protagonist in a completely bare, impersonal room, is encircled by a black stripe running across the surrounding walls – a tangible metaphor of the explosion of the heart and an element bringing the artworks together. The triptychs displayed have at their center the pivotal pictures of the installation: photographs of marbles, the only colored ones in the entire production, without the geometric glass compositions that characterize the other works of art.